Spinning for Britain
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008We learn, via the Daily Express, that the Office for Criminal Justice Reform (”Who are they?” we hear you perfectly reasonably cry) has advertised for some media staff. Six, in fact.
We’ll let the Criminal Justice System website (yes, the system has a website) explain about the OCJR:
The Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) is the cross-departmental team that supports all criminal justice agencies in working together to provide an improved service to the public.
As a cross-departmental organisation, OCJR reports to Ministers in the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office and the Attorney General’s Office.
One might innocently ask why there’s a quango for this, rather than just the Ministry of Justice itself. And why they need six new media staff.
The OCJR also spent £29 million last year on consultancy fees, but we dare not suggest that this might have been anything other than an excellent use of taxpayers’ money.
The Express quotes Liberal Democrat MP Jeremy Browne, to whom we’ll give the last word:
With prisons bursting at the seams, employing armies of new spin doctors is the wrong priority.
